Communication experts have established the fact that less than one-third of the meaning transferred from one person to another in a personal conversation comes from the words that are spoken. The majority of meaning comes from nonverbal sources, including body movement, eye contact, gestures, posture, vocal tone, pitch, pacing and phrasing. Other messages come from your clothing, your use of time and literally dozens of other nonverbal categories. People learn how to read and interpret such wordless messages, but many of these messages may be difficult to detect and understand.

Nonverbal communication is widely regarded as the transfer of meaning without the use of verbal symbols. That is, nonverbal refers in a literal sense to those actions, objects and contexts that either communicate directly or facilitate communication without using words. As communication professionals and casual observers alike will testify, though, separating the effects of verbal and nonverbal behavior is never easy, largely because they tend to reinforce each other, contradict each other or are in some way about each other.

Virtually all nonverbal communication is culturally based, with the exception of emotional displays and certain facial expressions. That is, you learn to behave and communicate in certain ways, and to interpret the meanings of those behaviors, as you grow up in your culture. This means acquiring values, beliefs, possessions, behaviors and ways of thinking that are acceptable to others and, in fact, expected of you as a member of your society. So, what is strictly forbidden in one 36 culture— exposing an adult woman's face to strangers in public— may be perfectly normal in another. As a member of a global community, you must not only learn and abide by the rules of the society you grew up in, but also come to understand and appreciate the rules of other societies, as well.

What does this mean for you as a speaker? It means several things. First, it means that your audience has certain expectations of you. They pay attention, for example, to how you've dressed. With very few exceptions, the rule is simple: you should dress just slightly better than others in the room. Appropriate attire creates the impression that you are organized, professional and on top of your game. It also conveys the notion that you respect your audience and want to create a positive image in their minds.

Before you decide to gather people in one room and speak to them, consider whether you really need to give a presentation. Alternative communication channels may be more useful, productive and efficient. They may be less expensive, as well.

Think for a minute about the essential differences between speaking and writing. Writing produces a permanent record and can be used to convey great detail. It's often much more precise than a spoken presentation, and can be used to carefully control wording. Speaking, on the other hand, produces a richer context, including nonverbal cues. It seems less rigid, less permanent and may be more effective.

If you're planning to gather a group of employees to hear about the implementation of a new business strategy, then a speech may be a good idea, but only if they have enough information to understand what you're about to say, and if personal contact with the audience will advance both the speaker's and the listeners’ goals. A speech is certainly more expensive than an e-mail or a memo. Just divide the monthly compensation by the number of hours worked times the number of people in the room, and then add the costs in lost productivity and opportunity. Be sure to calculate transportation, room-use costs, refreshments and other incidentals, as well. The cost of a presentation can quickly add up to much more than another communication channel will cost.

Writing in the form of a memo, letter, report or proposal may be more efficient, cheaper and more effective than a presentation, depending on the needs of the audience. How will they take in and process the information you're passing to them? Will they need high levels of detail or tabular data to understand your key points? Will they require charts, graphs and illustrations? Will they want to read at their own pace and convenience and then return to the information for later reference?

A written document can take on a life of its own and is certainly more permanent than the spoken word. The choice you make depends on the needs of your audience and, frequently, the customs and culture of the organization you're working with.

As listeners arrive in a conference room, lecture hall or auditorium, they already have questions in mind about the topic. They have other concerns, as well: will this be painful or pleasant? Will I learn anything today? Is any of this going to be useful or will it simply be a waste of time? In addition to the usual anxieties people have about attending a presentation, most audiences will have the following kinds of questions about the speaker, as well.

Do you know what I need to know? As the audience sizes you up, your task is to convince them that you know something they either want or need to know. You should state your credentials or experience in the introduction and give a brief overview of your talk. If you can show them what you know, up front, they may pay attention long enough to learn something.

Can I trust you? People will trust someone they believe, as well as someone they respect and think is fair. Borrowing credibility from others as you begin is often a good way to establish your trustworthiness. This is most easily done by arranging for someone the audience trusts to introduce you.

Am I comfortable with you? If you make the audience nervous or uncomfortable during your speech, they aren't going to learn much. If they aren't having fun or don't want to be in the room with you, you'll have little chance of influencing them in a meaningful way. Demonstrating that you're at ease and comfortable with the audience, topic and occasion are ways to generate comfort among your listeners. Don't ever tell them you're nervous or display anxiety that might reveal just how unhappy you are about the prospect of speaking to them.

How can you affect me? During a presentation, people want to know how you will affect them and the lives they're leading. Will you be helpful or instructive? Are you supportive of their goals and ambitions? If you can show them how the content of your talk will have a beneficial effect on them, you'll get their attention. Negative messages are necessary from 15 time to time, but if you can demonstrate the value or benefit in what you're saying, you'll keep the audience with you. One of their greatest concerns as a presentation begins is that this will be completely irrelevant to them.

Most audience members are completely unaware of the delivery approach a presenter has selected … until they realize that someone is reading to them. For most audiences, that's a horrible feeling. Why? Because most people read aloud in a monotone voice and, unless they were trained as an actor or an announcer, most people can't handle a full script and an audience at the same time. The result: no eye contact, no vocal projection, no sense of personal commitment to the presentation. The reaction: “Why am I here? He or she could have e-mailed this to me.”

So, let's give some thought to methods of delivery. You have basically four options for delivering a presentation, but probably shouldn't depend on more than just one or two of them.

Memorized presentations are delivered verbatim, word-for-word just as the authors wrote them. The problem with memorized speeches is that, unless you are a trained actor, you cannot deliver them with any level of conviction. They sound wooden, contrived and artificial. Worse yet, you may forget where you are and have to start over. Unless you're doing Shakespeare from the stage, forget about memorized talks.

Scripted presentations are far more common among managerial and executive speaking events. The problem with speaking from a script, as I just noted, is that it sounds read. The impression from the audience is almost always negative. Reading a fully scripted speech ensures that you will include each key point and resist the temptation to ad-lib, but without a TelePrompTer to display your script, you lose eye contact with the audience and seem distant or remote to them. You also drop your chin and compress the pitch of your voice. Unless you have no other choice, don't work with a verbatim script. If you must, then rehearse carefully and try looking up frequently, making regular contact with the audience.

Even though I advise against reading from a script, keep in mind 25 that it can serve a number of important functions for you, and perhaps for your employer. First, it is one way of assuring that you'll deliver the speech exactly as written with no additions or deletions.

If you've ever had to make a presentation, you know the anxiety that comes with speaking in public. Even experienced speakers can feel flustered, sweaty, anxious and apprehensive. That's a perfectly natural reaction to a threatening situation. And when you know you're being evaluated, you feel even more threatened. Your perception of a threat causes you to release adrenal fluids, dilate your pupils, tense your muscles, and provokes a “fight or flight” response. You understand the consequences of not doing well, of failing to impress an audience or not coming through for a client when it really matters. You know all too well what can go wrong.

Good public speakers tend to focus on what can go right. They concentrate on the positive aspects of their message and how it can benefit their audience. Once they detect a positive response from their listeners, that perception serves to reinforce a sense of self-confidence, reassurance and belief that they can do this.

The fact is, public speaking is a learned skill. It's not something you're born with or that comes naturally. You're certainly born with the propensity to speak and gesture, but given the short range of the human voice, those skills are clearly intended for interpersonal or small-group settings. Speaking to a larger audience is a skill that must be learned, rehearsed and reinforced through repeated opportunities.

Keep this in mind: Very few small children are great public speakers. So how do young managers (and others) get to be so good at presenting complex information to an audience that has little interest or motivation in learning? More to the point, how do they get the audience to act on the message being shared? The answer, in part, lies in the response to the classic New York pedestrian's question, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” The response? “Practice, practice, practice.”

People with very little natural ability as a child have become 1 exceptional public speakers by the time they reach their twenties and thirties. Great orators, politicians and business leaders develop professional speaking skills by analyzing both their audience and their purpose for speaking. They prepare meticulously and seek out opportunities to present; then they learn what is effective from the audiences’ feedback.

Sometimes audience members are not permitted to ask questions. In that case, your task is to anticipate their concerns and deal with them in your prepared remarks. If the format of your presentation allows for questions following your talk, then you should prepare for that. Here's the truth about handling questions:

You understand how valuable communication is to the success of any business. And you also understand the value of skillful communication on a personal level. You make friends, establish relationships, pass ideas and accomplish the work that earns your living each day. Yet, strangely, the communication skill most central to your success in life is the one you're least likely to study in a formal way: listening.

Recent studies show that more than half of an adult's daily conversations are spent listening to someone else speak. Even though listening is clearly a crucial skill, few people know how to do so efficiently and effectively. Professor Ralph Nichols of the University of Minnesota warns us, however, that “… listening is hard work. It is characterized by faster heart action, quicker circulation of the blood, a small rise in bodily temperature.” The implication is simple: if you are not motivated to work at listening, you are not likely to improve.

Studies of listening skill repeatedly show that the average North American adult listens at an efficiency rate of just 25 percent. Your mother was right: for most people, literally three-quarters of what we hear goes in one ear and out the other. You retain and understand just a fraction of what's going on around you.

There is a substantial difference, though, between hearing and listening. On the one hand, hearing is merely an involuntary physical response to the environment. Listening, on the other hand, is a process that includes hearing, attending to, understanding, evaluating and responding to spoken messages. It's a sophisticated communication skill that can be mastered only with considerable practice. And though improving one's listening skills is difficult, demanding and challenging, it is also immensely rewarding.

Why have most of us become so resistant to careful listening? “It's because of our fast-paced world,” says Kathy Thompson of Alverno College. “We're always in a hurry. Mentally we're saying, ‘Get to the point.’ We don't have time to hear the whole story. We're running from house to job to store to church. Good listening takes time.”

That's part of it, according to Wick Chambers, a partner in Speechworks, an Atlanta communications-training firm. “But also, people think listening is boring; it's more fun to talk.”

The best way to deal with anxiety in a presentation is to recognize it before it begins. The audience won't know you're nervous unless you tell them you are (my advice: don't), or they see and hear nervousness once you begin speaking. If you deal with your nerves in advance of that, your chances for a successful presentation are much greater.

Behavioral psychologists commonly recommend three ways to diminish the negative effects of anxiety. These include depersonalization, behavior modification and practice.

If an important fraction of the information transferred from speaker to listener comes in the form of something other than words, then you should understand the roles that such communication can play in the exchange. Nonverbal communication serves a number of important functions for public speakers, but researchers have identified these six as major functions.

The support you plan to include in your presentation really comes in two basic forms. The first type is factual data in the form of examples or statistics. The second is testimonial evidence or statements of opinion about what is, has been, or is likely to be true in the future. Testimonial evidence is frequently used when a speaker has no factual basis available for judgment. It's needed when the presenter wants to make a prediction about what will happen in the future as a result of our taking some current action.

Let's begin by considering testimonial evidence. The quality of factual and opinion evidence is best judged by the characteristics of the source of the testimony. There are several ways to gauge the reliability of a source:

Objectivity and accuracy record. Some sources have a reputation for objectivity and accuracy, while others do not. Government agencies, such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, are generally considered to have very good records for providing accurate, unbiased information. The executive branch of the government doesn't have such a good record. Political appointees in that branch often release information that has an ideological or political bias— and this is true of both parties, really— to help achieve political objectives. The Wall Street Journal is considered to be more accurate and, at least on the news pages, more objective than, say, The National Enquirer.

Expertise and knowledge of facts. In the case of opinion evidence, a person's expertise and experience in a field are crucial. In fields such as criminology, medicine, economics, foreign affairs or archeology, the opinions of people with appropriate education and experience are generally trusted over those of a lay person or nonexpert. However, keep two key points in mind. First, expertise is subject-specific. Just because your dentist knows something about root canals and gingivitis doesn't mean he knows anything about the stock market. Second, even lay persons without any special forms of expertise may be just as 21 reliable as an expert when reporting observed facts.

Consistency. This test has two aspects. The first is internal consistency; for example, does a particular source contradict itself in reports spread over an extended period of time or within the same report? The second aspect is that the information given by a source should be consistent with other sources.

Long before the day of your talk, check on all of the most important details about the location and plan to arrive just a little early. This extra time gives you an opportunity to look at and think about a number of issues regarding the location and setup of your presentation room.

Date, time and location. Where are you supposed to be? When is your talk scheduled to begin? If you are unfamiliar with the location, find out as much as you can about it in advance. Figure out the best route to your speaking location. Find out where to park and where the room or auditorium for your presentation is located.

Room layout. Walking into the room with no idea of how it will be organized is unwise. Don't depend on others to set up the room to your satisfaction, either. If possible, arrive early and arrange the room the way you like it. It's your speech, take charge of the room.

Microphone and acoustics. Try out the sound system in advance. If you have to wear a wireless mike, find out exactly what you need to do to make it work. Decide beforehand whether you are willing to speak without a sound system if it fails or wait for someone to repair it.

Visual-aids. Check out the screen, the placement of your projector and the system you plan to use to support your talk. Make sure the image is focused, centered and visible to the people in the back row.

Stage. Take a moment to find out how to get on and off the stage, where the sound projection limits are in the room; and location of the trap doors, cables and high-risk footing. Figure out where the perimeter of the stage is and how close your podium is positioned to the edge. More than one professional speaker or performer has literally fallen off the edge of a stage or raised platform because he didn't pay attention to the boundaries. A raised platform with a curtain behind you is particularly dangerous and deserves your close attention before you begin the presentation.

Time limits. Double-check with your host on the time limit for your talk and then abide by it. Don't disappoint by ending your talk early or by speaking beyond your allotted time.

Among the factors that will quickly influence whether an audience wants to listen to you is your speaking style. We each have a style that we develop through practice, experience, watching and listening to others. That style has a great deal to do with how an audience will react when we begin speaking.

New York-based communication consultant Sonya Hamlin asked a number of people, including business managers, friends and associates about their reactions to various speaking styles. She compiled an impressive list of stylistic elements that are positive, as well as those that are negative.

Hamlin found that people react positively to speakers who are warm, friendly and interesting. What does warm mean? While that's a bit hard to define, most people certainly can tell if people are “warm” on meeting them. In the autumn of 1960, when John F. Kennedy was running for President of the United States against Richard Nixon, the two candidates agreed to a televised debate which would showcase each man's ideas, intellect and rhetorical skills.

The debate was broadcast on both television and radio. Surprisingly, judging who won seemed to depend directly on whether you saw the debate on TV or heard it on the radio. A scientific survey of people who tuned into the debate revealed that those who only listened to the exchange thought Richard Nixon had won. He answered the questions in detail, had good debating points, was specific about his policies and proposals, and seemed in command of the facts. People who saw the debate on television thought Jack Kennedy had won— hands down. Even though Kennedy evaded a number of questions and sidestepped some difficult issues, people were impressed with his demeanor, presence and charisma. In a word, they thought he was warm.

Audiences also like listening to people who are organized and confident. Organization helps, of course, because it's one more thing listeners won't have to do for themselves. And confidence wins friends. If you're not confident about this subject, why should the audience 14 give you their attention? If you show them your enthusiasm, they will reward you with their undivided attention.

Gene Zelazny, the director of visual communication for McKinsey & Company, says the best approach to choosing the right visual for your presentation is a simple, three-step process: first determine your message; next, identify the comparison; and, finally, select the chart form.

“Choosing a chart form without a message in mind,” he says, “is like trying to color coordinate your wardrobe while blindfolded.” Choosing the correct chart form depends on clearly knowing what message you want to deliver. The data (dollars, percentages, gallons and so on) don't determine the chart. Nor does the measure (return on investment, examination scores and so on) determine which chart you should choose. Rather, it's your message, what you want to show, the specific point you want to make.

The second step is to identify the type of comparison you want to make. Graphic design experts have identified five basic kinds of visual comparisons: